In their first meeting of the year and the first the Coyotes have been in Boston in 5 years,the Bruins (43-17-5), who are currently on a 6 game win streak (their longest this season), go head to head with the Phoenix Coyotes (31-24-11) in hopes of extending that streak.

The Bruins have been an absolute force in recent weeks and, with a win tonight, will be able to take over 2nd place in the league behind the St. Louis Blues. Just let that sink in for a minute.

The Bruins go into tonight still missing Adam McQuaid, who is STILL struggling with that quad injury, and Dougie Hamilton, who will be the healthy scratch again tonight for Meszaros. We also won't be seeing Daniel Paille, who is out with a minor concussion until at least this weekend. It also looks like we'll be seeing Chad Johnson in net tonight.

Projected Bruins Line Up

Team Stats

Team: The Coyotes are one of those middle of the road teams that, at the moment, at in the running for the second wild card spot. The Coyotes are coming into this game after a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers. They are fourth in the Pacific Division with 73 points. The Bruins are almost a full 20 points ahead of them, to put that in perspective. The Coyotes have a -5 goal differential with a 2.79 GAA (18th overall) and 2.71 GF/game (16th overall). Like I said, middle of the road team. They're power play definitely isn't middle of the pack though, what with a 21% conversion rate (3rd overall). But they're penalty kill offsets that like it's their job with a 79.6% success rate (27th overall). Not very good at all.

Players: 12 of their guys have negative ratings on the ice ranging from Moss's -1 to Yendle's surprising -18. 3 of their guys are even and the rest are positive ranging from Gormley's +1 to Michalek's +8. Vrbata leads the team with 46 points (54th overall) while Vermette leads with 22 goals (36th overall).

Goalie: Mike Smith will more than likely get the start tonight. He's played in 56 games with a 24-19-10 record. He's got a .914 SV% (41st out of 85) and a 2.69 GAA (46th out of 85). Basically, he's just kind of adding to the mediocrity of the team. Especially if you remember the wonderful moment when he managed to somehow get the puck caught in his equipment and then scoring for the opposing team.

Of Note: Doan will be playing in his 1300th NHL game tonight. Vrbata had three points against the Panthers and four goals with 2 assists in the past four games. Yandle has 5 assists in his past four.

Team: As I said earlier, the Bruins have been an indomitable force the last few weeks and I don't necessarily expect that to end tonight. The boys, as we all remember, are coming into this game after a glorious 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens and with a 6 game win streak under their belts. We are still first in the Atlantic Division with 91 points and are 4th (hopefully soon to be second) in the league. We have a +64 goal differential with a 2.17 GAA (2nd overall) and a 3.17 GF/game (2nd overall). Our power play is right behind Phoenix's with a 20.9% conversion rate (4th overall) while our penalty kill is leagues better than theirs with a success rate of 83.2% (11th overall).

Players: Only four of our guys have negative ratings ranging from Soupy's -1 to Caron's -5 because he's useless. Three of our guys are even while everyone else has a positive rating ranging from Thorty's +2 to Bergeron's +32. Krejci leads the team with 56 points (25th overall) while Marchand leads the team with 21 goals (44th overall).

Goalie: Chad Johnson will be getting the nod tonight. He's played in 20 games with a 13-3-1 record. He has a .919 SV% (22nd overall) and a 2.22 GAA (16th overall)

Of Note: Patrice Bergeron has 5 points in his last two games because he's a god. Soderberg had 5 points in his last 4 games.